Blogs

It Feels like Christmas

Blog:

November 22, 2017

In Canterbury the Christmas hustle and bustle has begun. Everyone is cramming the narrow cobblestone streets of the city center, getting their shopping done, and some of those holiday sales have started. Even though the amount of people in town has grown, the streets had still been dark, and non-festive, with minimal lights at night. That all changed on November 16th, when everyone gathered to watch lights get turned on, to sparkle in the cold, rainy weather.

In the weeks leading up to the big reveal of lights, workers were putting up decorations, hanging lights throughout town, and preparing the tree for the major event. The suspense was awful, because you really just wanted to see the City Center all lit up in Christmas colors. The big night, the it was all going to happen night, was filled with a whole lot of performers singing Christmas songs, and music to just get the massive crowds of people that lined the streets of the city center in an up-beat, happy mood. With everyone in a tight space, close to one another, and dancing around having a good time, it was not that hard to stay warm, plus it helped that we had extra-large hot chocolates in hand.

Finally, the last 15 minutes leading up to the flip of the switch came (and so did the rain), and the speeches began, and one more Christmas song. Once they flipped the switch, you could see the whole main street running through town was lit up with holiday cheer, and they sang one last Christmas song, to mark the glorious occasion. If it did not feel like Christmas before, here in England, well it certainly did now.